AT17

Off she goes, Iain Oughtred's slightly foreshortened Penny Fee, at 15ft. Sails by Jeckells, spars by the wonderful Jeremy Freeland at Collars. The rest by Messrs Burke and Morgan (that's Jonny by the way...)

Saturday, 17 January 2015

Strake Four. Half Way There

Progress is not exactly rapid, but now that Christmas and New Year are but hideous memories (not entirely true as this year for a change) Bob the Gartside skiff is taking shape by the day.

The fourth strake went on this morning and if I had more nippers, the other side might have gone on as well. But the downside with glue as against copper nails is that you pretty much have to wait for one side to dry before putting up the other, that is if you want to avoid fastenings. It makes for a slower but perhaps more measured pace. A pair of planks takes a day to spile and scarph, and a day each for the actual fitting, so twice as long as solid wood and nails. But not twice as long in time, as once you've glued everything up, which takes a couple of hours, you might as well go home and write... a blog post perhaps?

The Vendia/Collano marriage is still going strong and I cannot imagine using anything else now. No mixing, minimal mess and wastage, why bother with epoxy? As for Vendia, I think I said it all in my last post and for those who want the full paean of praise, read March Classic Boat in which I wax positively euphoric.

So that's the way it all looked on Saturday morning. Shape wise I am pretty happy. The garboard I made wide to give the planking a good start and support the centreline, the second strake is narrow, after which the strakes even out, until the hood ends after strake two should be about equal width.